Times of Trenton Letters to the Editor - Aug. 17

We have waited long enough for the food industry to voluntarily develop standards to reduce the marketing of unhealthy foods to children. While the proposed uniform standards recently announced by several food companies are a step in the right direction, they do not go far enough to have a significant impact on limiting the types of unhealthy foods marketed to children.

According to the American Heart Association, one in three children in the U.S. is considered overweight or obese. Food manufacturers must adopt the science-based nutrition guidelines proposed by government agencies. This will help families make healthier food choices and reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke, which remain, respectively, our nation’s No. 1 and No. 3 causes of death annually.

Nearly 40 percent of sixth-graders are considered overweight or obese, according to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. As a scientist aiming to prevent cardiovascular diseases and stroke, I am alarmed at the condition of our children’s health in the Garden State. Overconsumption of high-calorie foods is largely to blame for these growing waistlines. Aggressive measures are necessary to reverse this disturbing trend.

Food manufacturers need to go a step further and adopt the government’s proposed principles. This will significantly limit children’s exposure to advertisements promoting foods and beverages that are high in sugar, trans-fat and sodium and low in nutritional quality and will reassure parents who are trying to do the right thing for their children.

I thought that I had heard it all when The Times reported that certain state workers were getting a $700-a-year uniform allowance and none of the employees wore uniforms (“N.J. is the worse for wear,” April 22). But, for the workers at South Jersey Port Corporation to get paid a bonus just to show up on time is absolutely absurd (“Christie axes Port Corp. timeliness bonuses,” July 29). They actually didn’t even have to be on time: They just couldn’t be more than 30 minutes late.

Gov. Chris Christie is trying very hard to uncover and reverse the reckless spending habits of our previous governors and legislators, but this is just the tip of the iceberg and he can’t possibly find all of the wasteful spending. The state of New Jersey needs an independent auditor to go over every expenditure, line item by line item, and locate all of the waste, duplication, fraud and outright theft. It might be a good idea if the auditors checked the expenditures of all the counties, townships and boards of education. I’m sure that would prove to be very interesting.

-- Ron Dockter,
Ewing

Allow wayward animals their full seven days

Proposed legislation S2923 would be the cause of death of a great many animals in New Jersey if the governor doesn’t veto it before Aug. 25. Page 4, line 40 of the bill gives overly broad powers to shelters if they determine that the age, health or “aggression” of an animal warrants its death. In such cases, it allows shelters to euthanize animals before the required seven-day holding period is over. With the current economy, animal shelters are filled and overburdened, but wholesale slaughter is not what shelters are there for.

Those animals that are elderly or sickly and are being maintained by their owners but somehow get loose are picked up and killed before their owners can retrieve them. Or the dog or cat that gets loose is terrified by the animal control officer and so is deemed aggressive and is killed — it is the unfortunate victim of this legislation. At best, seven days is often not enough time for an owner to locate and retrieve a lost animal.

In addition, many towns maintain feral cat colonies, where the cats are neutered, vaccinated and fed, and by attrition the colony will ultimately disappear. However, not everyone likes cats or appreciates the benefits they bring to an area in terms of rodent control. This legislation would enable a call to be made, the cats picked up and killed.

Shortening the stay at a shelter before execution will not solve the problems of overcrowded shelters. Killing does not solve our society’s issues. I urge readers to please write to the governor and their legislators regarding the bill and the harm it will do.

-- Phyllis Deal,
Hightstown

Let parents choose school that’s best for their child

The letter “Busybody school districts have no right to interfere” (Aug. 16) heartened me. I applaud the writer’s forthright challenge to the status quo.

His message is about parental choice: parents as children’s first teachers being provided the full array of educational options for their children, whether public, private, parochial, charter or home schools, no matter their economic status.

The double whammy is that districts then spend “taxpayer dollars to frustrate the educational aspirations of parents and children who desire ... a state-approved alternative to the traditional district schools.” Parents, in effect, are being made to pay twice.

This debate is about fairness and fair play. At the New Jersey Rally for School Choice held in the spring of 2010 at the State House, I spoke with a minister from Camden who shared how he would see the same little girl walking to and from school each day, and he wondered how long before he’d see the light go out of her eyes, trapped as she was inside an urban district that didn’t work.

His story resonates, as we in this movement continue to ask: When is education in this country going to be about the children? It’s a moral question, one that begs the answer to “who” over “what” we value most as a nation.

The school choice movement is building momentum in these United States, and it should inform a new national education policy. In its grass roots, it needs to continue to flourish and grow, affecting as it does the truth of every layer of our communal lives as citizens.

-- Alicia Grimaldi Brzycki,
Lawrence
The writer is an independent parent advocate who lobbies in our nation’s capital for greater support, funding and awareness of a variety of children’s health- and education-related issues.

Justice for priest cleared of charges

It does not surprise me to see the number of letters written to The Times supporting Fr. James Selvaraj. They indicate that there are many individuals who question the unjust decision, made by the former bishop of the Trenton Diocese, forbidding Fr. Selvaraj from exercising his priestly duties publicly. The decision was made even after Fr. Selvaraj was found completely innocent of all charges of endangering the welfare of a child.

The church constantly reminds us of how, 2,000 years ago, a man was unjustly accused while those in power did next to nothing.

I’d like to know why the new bishop hasn’t met with Fr. Selvaraj. Does this mean Bishop David O’Connell’s arrival on the scene will be the “same old, same old,” or will justice prevail?

-- Clifford Zdanowicz,
Hamilton

For good schooling, chalk it up to the basics

A lot of the problems in our schools are not the teachers’ fault. Under the pretext of improving teaching methods, much that was taught has changed. There’s not enough reading, writing, geography, science, literature or spelling drills. The ABCs, penmanship, multiplication tables and other basics have been de-emphasized in favor of learning by doing.

Learning by doing can mean learning not at all. When something’s not working, you go back to what worked. Education is a preparation for the student’s future life.